This version contains a more information.and have a total of 135 cards.
If you'd like to purchase this set of cards, they are available through :
Opal Information
po box 141, leigh-on-sea, Essex, UK
they cost:
for UK : 17 pounds
europe 17.50 pounds
s america & africa 18.50 pounds
australia,new zealand & japan 18.90 pounds
usa,canada 35 Us Dls
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Ok, here's my copy of the posting from some while ago of Brian Eno's oblique
strategies cards. Each line was printed on a playing card sized card, black
on one side, white on the printed side. They come in a small black box that
says "Oblique Strategies" on one side in gold lettering, and the artists
names are on the other side. They were developed by Brian Eno and Peter
Schmidt, who was a painter friend of Eno's (he did the cover for Taking
Tiger Mountain (by Strategy)). The first little bit there descibes the basic
ideas behind the cards and their recommended use. I bought my set in 1980
for $11.00. It was a second, unsigned edition. A friend of mine has offered
to sell me his first edition, signed by both artists, for $100.00 Those are
the only two copies I've ever seen. I have no idea where you might find a
copy of the set.
Enjoy.
-=- -=- -=-
Here are the ``Oblique Strategies'' cards that have been mentioned/requested:
(this first bit is the introductory card)
OBLIQUE STRATEGIES
Over 100 worthwhile dilemmas by Brian Eno & Peter Schmidt
These cards evolved from our separate observations of the principles
underlying what we were doing. Sometimes they were recognized in retro-
spect (intellect catching up with intuition), sometimes they were formulated.
They can be used as a pack (a set of possibilities being continuously
reviewed in the mind) or by drawing a single card from the shuffled pack
when a dilemma occurs in a working situation. In this case the card is
trusted even if its appropriateness is quite unclear. They are not final,
as new ideas will present themselves, and others will become self-evident.
[First published 1975, slightly revised edition 1978.
(BLANK CARD)
(Organic) Machinery
A line has two sides
A very small object Its center
Abandon normal instruments
Accept advice
Accretion
Allow an easement (an easement is the abandonment of a structure)
Always first steps
Always give yourself credit for having more than personality
Are there sections ? Consider transitions
Ask people to work against their better judgment
Ask your body
Assemble some of the elements in a group and treat the group
Balance the consistency principle with the inconsistency principle
Be dirty
Be extravagant
Be less critical more often
Breathe more deeply
Bridges - build - burn
Cascades
Change instrument roles
Change nothing and continue with immaculate consistency
Children -speaking -singing
Cluster analysis
Consider different fading systems
Consult other sources - Promising - Unpromising
Convert a melodic element into a rhythmic element
Courage !
Cut a vital connection
Decorate, decorate
Define an area 'safe' and use it as an anchor
Destroy -nothing -The most important thing
Discard an axiom
Disciplined self-indulgence
Disconnect from desire
Discover the recipes you are using and abandon them
Distorting time
Do nothing for as long as possible
Do something boring
Do the washing up
Do the words need changing?
Do we need holes?
Don't be afraid of things because they're easy to do
Don't be frightened of clichs
Don't be frightened to display yourtalents
Don't break the silence
Don't stress one thing more than another
Emphasize differences
Emphasize repetitions
Emphasize the flaws
Faced with a choice, do both
Feed the recording back out of the medium
Fill every beat with something
Get your neck massaged
From nothing to more than nothing
Ghost echoes
Give the game away
Give way to your worst impulse
Go outside. Shut the door
Go slowly all the way round the circle
Go to an extreme, move back to a more comfortable place
Honor thy error as a hidden intention
How would you have done it ?
Humanize something free of error
Idiot glee (?)
Imagine the pieces as a set of disconnected events
In total darkness, or in a very largeroom, very quietly
Infinitesimal gradations
Intentions - nobility of - humility of - credibility of
Into the impossible
Is it finished ?
Is the intonation correct ?
Is there something missing ?
It is quite possible (after all)
Just carry on
Left channel, right channel, center channel
Listen to the quite voice
Look at the order in which you do things
Look closely at the most embarrassing details and amplify them
Lost in useless territory
Lowest common denominator
Make a blank valuable by putting it in an exquisite frame
Make a sudden, destructive unpredictable action; incorporate
Make an exhaustive list of everything you might do and do the last thing on the list
Mechanicalize something idiosyncratic
Mute and continue
Not building a wall but making a brick
Once the search is in progress, something will be found
Only a part, not the whole
Only one element of each kind
Overtly resist change
Put in earplugs
Question the heroic approach
Reevaluation (a warm feeling) was revaluation
Remember .those quite evenings
Remember specifics and convert to ambiguities
Remove ambiguities and convert to specifics
Repetition is a form of change
Retrace your steps
Reverse
Short circuit (example; a man eating peas with the idea that they will improve his virility shovels them straight into his lap)
Simple subtraction
Simply a matter of work
Spectrum analysis
State the problem in words as clearly as possible
Take a break
Take away the elements in order of apparent non-importance
Tape your mouth
The inconsistency principle
The most important thing is the thing most easily forgotten
The tape is now the music
Think of the radio
Tidy up
Towards the insignificant
Trust in the you of now
Turn it upside down
Twist the spine
Use 'unqualified' people
Use an old idea
Use an unacceptable colour
Use fewer notes
Use filters
Water
What are the sections of?Imagine a caterpillar moving
What are you really thinking about just now?
What is the reality of the situation ?
What mistakes did you make last time?
What would your closest friend do ?
What wouldn+t you do?
Work at a different speed
Would anybody want it ?
You are an engineer
You can only make one dot at a time
You don't have to be ashamed of using your own ideas